PSA Flight 182
Encyclopedia
Pacific Southwest Airlines
(PSA) Flight 182, registration N533PS, was a Boeing 727-214
commercial airliner
that collided with a private Cessna 172
over San Diego, California
on September 25, 1978. Pacific Southwest Airlines' first accident involving fatalities, the death toll of 144 makes it the deadliest aircraft disaster in California history. It was also the deadliest plane crash in the history of the United States
until American Airlines Flight 191
went down eight months later.
The Boeing and Cessna crashed into North Park
, a San Diego neighborhood, killing all 135 on board, the two men aboard the Cessna, and seven people on the ground, including two children. Nine others on the ground were injured and 22 homes were destroyed or damaged.
The midair collision contributed to San Diego's Lindbergh Field
airport being ranked 10th among the world's Most Extreme Airports in a two-hour documentary of the same name released in July 2010, which aired in the U.S. on the History Channel. The PSA 182 accident caused the revision of air traffic rules applicable to the busiest airports across the U.S., with the intention of improving separation of aircraft operating in the vicinity of large airports.
Pacific Southwest Airlines flight 182 was a popular early-morning commuter flight en route to San Diego's Lindbergh Field
. The flight originated in Sacramento
, with a brief stopover in Los Angeles
. At the controls were Capt. James E. McFeron (with over 10,000 hours flying time in the B-727), co-pilot Robert E. Fox, and flight engineer Martin J. Wahne. As it neared the end of its flight in full sunlight and clear weather conditions, heading downwind in an easterly direction and just beginning a right turn to line up its westerly approach into Lindbergh Field, it overtook and collided with a small Cessna aircraft at 9:01 AM. The Cessna was flown by two licensed pilots. One was 32-year-old Martin B. Kazy Jr., who possessed single-engine, multi-engine and instrument flight
ratings, as well as a commercial certificate
and an instrument flight instructor
certificate. The other, 35-year-old David Boswell, a U.S. Marine Corps
sergeant, possessed single-engine and multi-engine ratings and a commercial certificate and was at the time of the accident practicing ILS
approaches under the instruction of Kazy in pursuit of his instrument rating. They departed from Montgomery Field, and were navigating under VFR
which did not require the filing of a flight plan. Boswell was wearing a "hood" to limit his field of vision straight ahead to the cockpit panel, much like an oversize sun visor with vertical panels to block peripheral vision, as is normal in IFR training.
The PSA pilots reported that they saw the Cessna after being notified of its position by ATC, although cockpit voice recordings revealed that shortly thereafter the PSA pilots no longer had the Cessna in sight and they were speculating about its position. Lindbergh tower heard the 09.00:50 transmission as "He's passing off to our right" and assumed the PSA jet had the Cessna in sight.
After getting permission to land, and about 40 seconds before colliding with the Cessna, the conversation among the four occupants of the cockpit (captain, first officer, flight engineer and an off-duty PSA captain who was riding in the cockpit's jump seat) was as follows, showing the confusion:
Actually, the Cessna was directly in front of and below the Boeing, and the PSA jet was descending and rapidly closing in on the small plane, which had taken a right turn to the east, deviating from the assigned course. According to the report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB), the Cessna may have been a difficult visual target for the jet's pilots, as it was below them and blended in with the multicolored hues of the residential area beneath, and the apparent motion of the Cessna as viewed from the Boeing was minimized as both planes were on approximately the same course. The report said that another possible reason that the PSA aircrew had difficulty observing the Cessna was that its fuselage was made visually smaller due to foreshortening. However, the same report in another section also stated that "the white surface of the Cessna's wing could have presented a relatively bright target in the sunlight."
A visibility study cited in the NTSB report concluded that the Cessna should have been almost centered in the windshield of the Boeing from 170 to 90 seconds before the collision, and thereafter it was likely positioned on the lower portion of the windshield just above the windshield wipers. The study also said that the Cessna pilot would have had about a 10-second view of the Boeing from the left-door window about 90 seconds before the collision, but visibility of the overtaking jet was blocked by the Cessna's ceiling structure for the remainder of the time.
Flight 182's crew never explicitly alerted the tower that they had lost sight of the Cessna. If they had made this clear to controllers, the crash might not have happened. Also, if the Cessna had maintained the heading of 70 degrees assigned to it by ATC instead of turning to 90 degrees, the NTSB estimates the planes would have missed each other by about (305 meters) instead of colliding. Ultimately, the NTSB maintained that regardless of that change in course, it was the responsibility of the crew in the overtaking jet to comply with the regulatory requirement to pass "well clear" of the Cessna.
Approach Control on the ground picked up an automated conflict alert 19 seconds before the collision but did not relay this information to the aircraft because, according to the approach coordinator, such alerts were commonplace even when there was no actual conflict. The NTSB stated: "Based on all information available to him, he decided that the crew of Flight 182 were complying with their visual separation clearance; that they were accomplishing an overtake maneuver within the separation parameters of the conflict alert computer; and that, therefore, no conflict existed."
This was the conversation in the PSA cockpit starting 16 seconds prior to collision with the Cessna:
Around this point, PSA Flight 182 had overtaken the Cessna which was directly below it, both approximately in a 090 (due east) heading, and the two aircraft collided. The collision occurred at approximately 2600 feet (792.5 m) and broke both the Cessna and the 727's right wing and empennage
to pieces. According to several witnesses on the ground there was first a loud metallic "crunching" sound, then an explosion and fire that compelled them to look up. The wreckage of the Cessna plummeted to the ground, its vertical stabilizer torn from its fuselage and bent leftward, its debris hitting around 3500 feet (1,066.8 m) northwest of where the 727 went down. PSA 182's right wing was heavily damaged, rendering the plane uncontrollable and sending it careening into a sharp right bank (clearly seen in the Hans Wendt photos), and the fuel tank inside it ruptured and started a fire, when this final conversation took place inside the cockpit:
Flight 182 struck the ground 4830 meters (three miles) northeast of Lindbergh Field, in a residential section of San Diego known as North Park
. It impacted in a high-speed, nose-down attitude while banked 50° to the right. Seismographic readings indicated that the impact occurred at 09:02:07, about 2.5 seconds after the cockpit voice recorder
lost power. The jet impacted just west of the I-805 freeway, approximately nine meters (30 feet) north of the intersection of Dwight and Nile streets, with the bulk of the debris field spreading in a northeast to southwesterly direction towards Boundary Street. The coordinates for the Boeing crash site are 32°44′37"N 117°07′14"W. The largest piece of the Cessna impacted about six blocks away near 32nd St. and Polk Ave. The explosion and fire created a mushroom cloud that could be seen for miles, and first responders on the scene reported that there was nothing left but utter destruction. In total, 144 people lost their lives in the disaster, including Flight 182's seven crew members, 30 additional PSA employees deadheading
to PSA's San Diego base, the two Cessna occupants, and seven residents (five women, two male children) on the ground. An additional nine people on the ground were injured, and 22 homes across a four-block area were destroyed or damaged. At the time it was the U.S.'s deadliest commercial air disaster, and it remains the worst in California's history.
The National Transportation Safety Board report (report number NTSB/AAR-79-05; released: 19-APR-1979)http://www.psa-history.org/museum/NTSBAAR7905.pdf determined that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the PSA flight crew to follow proper air traffic control
(ATC) procedures. Flight 182's crew lost sight of the Cessna in contravention of the ATC's instructions to "keep visual separation from that traffic", and did not alert ATC that they had lost sight of it. Errors on the part of ATC were also named as contributing factors, including the use of visual separation procedures when radar clearances were available. Additionally the Cessna pilots, for reasons unknown, did not maintain their assigned east-northeasterly heading
of 070 degrees after completing a practice instrument approach
, nor did they notify ATC of their course change. Concerning this the NTSB report states, "According to the testimony of the controllers and the assistant chief flight instructor of the Gibbs Flite Center (owner of the Cessna), the 0859:56 transmission from approach control to the Cessna only imposed an altitude limitation on the pilot, he was not required to maintain the 070° heading. However, the assistant chief flight instructor testified that he would expect the [Cessna] pilot to fly the assigned heading or inform the controller that he was not able to do so."
A dissenting opinion in the NTSB crash report by member Francis H. McAdams
strongly questioned why the unauthorized change in course by the Cessna was not specifically cited as a "contributing factor" in the final report; instead, it was listed as simply a "finding", which carries less weight. McAdams also "sharply disagreed" with the majority of the panel on other issues, giving more weight to inadequate ATC procedures as another "probable cause" to the accident, rather than merely treating them as a contributing factor. McAdams also added the "possible misidentification of the Cessna by the PSA aircrew due to the presence of a third unknown aircraft in the area" as a contributing factor. The majority panel members did not cite this as a credible possibility. In an August 1982 amendment to the probable cause finding, the NTSB adopted McAdams’ viewpoints regarding both ATC and pilot failings.
, the busiest single-runway commercial airport in the U.S., remains in use.
Staff photographer Hans Wendt of the San Diego County Public Relations Office was attending an outdoor press event with a still camera, and was able to take the two photographs of the falling Boeing after the collision with the Cessna. Cameraman Steve Howell from local TV channel 39 was attending the same event as Wendt, and captured the Cessna on film as it fell to earth. For its coverage of the disaster, The San Diego Evening Tribune, a predecessor to The San Diego Union-Tribune
, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize
in 1979 for "Local, General, or Spot News Reporting.
One of the victims on board PSA Flight 182 was Alan Tetelman, professor of metallurgy at UCLA and president of Failure Analysis Associates (now Exponent), who was en route to investigate a U.S. Navy helicopter
crash. Also killed in the crash were PSA passengers Charles Dunsmoor Bren, the 34-year-old son of actress Claire Trevor
Bren, and Richard "Ric" Horne, the 51-year-old brother of American mezzo-soprano opera singer Marilyn Horne
. Another victim was Valerie Woods Kantor, the first wife of future United States Secretary of Commerce
Mickey Kantor
.
A memorial plaque honoring those who died on both planes and on the ground is located in the San Diego Aerospace Museum
, near the Theodore Gildred Flight Rotunda in San Diego's Balboa Park. On the 20th anniversary of the crash, a tree was planted next to the North Park branch library, and a memorial plaque was dedicated to those who lost their lives. The library is not in the immediate vicinity of the actual crash site, which is completely rebuilt and bears no visible evidence of the crash.
As a result of the crash, the NTSB recommended the immediate implementation of a Terminal Radar Service Area
around Lindbergh Field to provide for the separation of aircraft, as well as an immediate review of control procedures for all busy terminal areas. However, this initial rule did not include small general aviation aircraft. Therefore, on May 15, 1980, the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), implemented what is called Class B airspace
to provide for the separation of all aircraft operating in the area. Additionally, all aircraft, regardless of size, are required to operate under "positive radar control," a rule that allows only radar control from the ground for all aircraft operating in the airport's airspace.
San Diego's Approach Control was expanded in 1994 to service a wider area. The facility, named SoCal TRACON, (Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control), is one of the nation's busiest approach facilities and covers the area from north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border, and from the Laguna Mountains
east of San Diego to the Channel Islands
off the coast of southern California.
At the time of the crash, Lindbergh Field was the only airport in San Diego County with an Instrument Landing System. As a direct result of the accident the FAA quickly installed the system at Montgomery and Gillespie fields, and at McClellan-Palomar Airport
.
In recent years more efficient technology has been added at airports across the nation in the area of conflict alert. "Collision Alert," in operation at southern California's TRACON, provides the air traffic controller with visual and audible warnings if aircraft are within close proximity to each other, or if they are in a projected too-close proximity. A feature known as "Traffic Collision Alert and Avoidance System
" (TCAS) is installed in all commercial passenger aircraft and in most commercial cargo planes. It not only gives the pilots visual and audible warnings in the cockpit when two aircraft are approaching each other, but even goes so far as to provide the pilots with a plan of action by directing them to climb or descend to avoid the other aircraft.
Because the PSA 182/Cessna collision was the result of pilot error, it is used as a teaching aid in modern flight training. Some flight schools use the crash in "human factors" classes, others refer to it while teaching airspace or visual separation rules.
After the tragedy of flight 182, Pacific Southwest Airlines went on to operate as one of the western U.S.'s most popular and successful commercial airlines throughout the rest of the 1970s and most of the 80s. The airline, which operated its first flight on May 6, 1949, became a division of USAir on May 29, 1987; the last PSA flight left San Diego as flight 1486 bound for Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 8, 1988. Sadly, although operating under parent company USAir, another PSA flight would be involved in a tragic event on December 7, 1987, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771.
In a case of life imitating art, the NBC
telemovie Emergency!: Survival on Charter #220 (effectively a two-hour Emergency!
episode filmed after the show was no longer a weekly series) had aired in March 1978, six months before the accident involving PSA Flight 182. It detailed the accidental daytime mid-air collision of a Douglas DC-9
airliner and a much smaller two-person aircraft and the resulting crash and carnage in a residential area of Los Angeles County.
On September 25, 2008, over 100 relatives and friends of the victims of PSA 182 gathered at Dwight and Nile streets in North Park for a 30th anniversary memorial of that fateful day.
News media and/or police on the scene captured the carnage, damage, and raging structural fires on film at the immediate impact zone and aircraft debris field. The dramatic, graphic footage captured the tragedy's aftermath minute by minute. The news footage, some of which was later used in the 1979 cult film Faces of Death
, included images of the dead and various unidentifiable human remains that resulted from the forceful impact and subsequent fires.
Nearby St. Augustine High School (San Diego, California) a triage and command and control center for those authorities who responded to the emergency and allowed the use of its gymnasium as a makeshift morgue for identifying human remains and forensic investigation.
Large freezer units were used to preserve the biological remains since San Diego was recording unusually high 100-degree temperatures at the time.
Pacific Southwest Airlines
Pacific Southwest Airlines was a United States airline headquartered in San Diego, California, that operated from 1949 to 1988. It was one of the first large discount airlines in the United States and is considered a precursor to Southwest Airlines...
(PSA) Flight 182, registration N533PS, was a Boeing 727-214
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...
commercial airliner
Airliner
An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...
that collided with a private Cessna 172
Cessna 172
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing fixed-wing aircraft. First flown in 1955 and still in production, more Cessna 172s have been built than any other aircraft.-Design and development:...
over San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
on September 25, 1978. Pacific Southwest Airlines' first accident involving fatalities, the death toll of 144 makes it the deadliest aircraft disaster in California history. It was also the deadliest plane crash in the history of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
until American Airlines Flight 191
American Airlines Flight 191
American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight in the United States from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles International Airport. On May 25, 1979, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 operating the route crashed moments after takeoff from Chicago....
went down eight months later.
The Boeing and Cessna crashed into North Park
North Park, San Diego, California
North Park is a neighborhood in San Diego, California, USA. It is situated to the northeast of Balboa Park, bounded on the north by the canyons overlooking Mission Valley, on the south by Switzer Canyon and the South Park neighborhood, on the east by Interstate 805 and City Heights, and on the...
, a San Diego neighborhood, killing all 135 on board, the two men aboard the Cessna, and seven people on the ground, including two children. Nine others on the ground were injured and 22 homes were destroyed or damaged.
The midair collision contributed to San Diego's Lindbergh Field
San Diego International Airport
San Diego International Airport , sometimes referred to as Lindbergh Field, is a public airport located northwest of the central business district of San Diego, California and from the Mexico – United States border at Tijuana, Mexico...
airport being ranked 10th among the world's Most Extreme Airports in a two-hour documentary of the same name released in July 2010, which aired in the U.S. on the History Channel. The PSA 182 accident caused the revision of air traffic rules applicable to the busiest airports across the U.S., with the intention of improving separation of aircraft operating in the vicinity of large airports.
Accident
Monday morning, September 25, 1978, was an unusually warm day in San Diego. Southern California was experiencing what locals call "Santa Ana winds," and people in the San Diego area would later experience 100-degree F (37-degree C) temperatures as the day wore on. At the time of the accident the winds were calm, the temperature 85 degrees F (29 degrees C), and the visibility 10 miles (16 km).Pacific Southwest Airlines flight 182 was a popular early-morning commuter flight en route to San Diego's Lindbergh Field
San Diego International Airport
San Diego International Airport , sometimes referred to as Lindbergh Field, is a public airport located northwest of the central business district of San Diego, California and from the Mexico – United States border at Tijuana, Mexico...
. The flight originated in Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
, with a brief stopover in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. At the controls were Capt. James E. McFeron (with over 10,000 hours flying time in the B-727), co-pilot Robert E. Fox, and flight engineer Martin J. Wahne. As it neared the end of its flight in full sunlight and clear weather conditions, heading downwind in an easterly direction and just beginning a right turn to line up its westerly approach into Lindbergh Field, it overtook and collided with a small Cessna aircraft at 9:01 AM. The Cessna was flown by two licensed pilots. One was 32-year-old Martin B. Kazy Jr., who possessed single-engine, multi-engine and instrument flight
Instrument Rating in the United States
An Instrument Rating is required for a pilot to fly under instrument flight rules .In the U.S., the rating is issued by the FAA.-Instrument rating standards:To be eligible to pursue an Instrument Rating, the applicant must:...
ratings, as well as a commercial certificate
Pilot certification in the United States
Pilot certification in the United States is required for an individual to act as a pilot of an aircraft. It is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration , a branch of the Department of Transportation...
and an instrument flight instructor
Flight instructor
A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to fly aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate the knowledge and skill level of an aviator in pursuit...
certificate. The other, 35-year-old David Boswell, a U.S. Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
sergeant, possessed single-engine and multi-engine ratings and a commercial certificate and was at the time of the accident practicing ILS
Instrument Landing System
An instrument landing system is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument...
approaches under the instruction of Kazy in pursuit of his instrument rating. They departed from Montgomery Field, and were navigating under VFR
Visual flight rules
Visual flight rules are a set of regulations which allow a pilot to operate an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minimums, as specified in the rules of the...
which did not require the filing of a flight plan. Boswell was wearing a "hood" to limit his field of vision straight ahead to the cockpit panel, much like an oversize sun visor with vertical panels to block peripheral vision, as is normal in IFR training.
| Abridged communication between PSA 182 and the controllers, and among the PSA flight crew | ||
| # = Nonpertinent word * = Unintelligible word = Questionable text () = Commentary | ||
| Time | Source | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 08:59:39 | San Diego approach control |
PSA one eighty-two, additional traffic's ah, twelve o'clock, three miles (5 km) just north of the field, northeastbound, a Cessna one seventy-two climbing VFR out of one thousand four hundred |
| 08:59:39 | Flight engineer | Yeah ((Sound of laughter)) |
| 08:59:39 | First officer | Very nice |
| 08:59:41 | Flight engineer | He really broke up laughing I said so I'm late |
| 08:59:48 | ((Off-duty captain relays an anecdote until 09:00:10)) | |
| 08:59:50 | First officer | Okay we've got that other twelve. Cessna seven seven one one golf, San Diego departure. |
| 08.59:57 | San Diego approach control | Maintain VFR conditions at or below three thousand five hundred, fly heading zero seven zero, vector final approach course. |
| 09.00:16 | San Diego approach control | PSA one eighty-two, traffic's at twelve o'clock, three miles out of one thousand seven hundred. |
| 09.00:21 | First officer | Got 'em. |
| 09.00:38 | Lindbergh tower | PSA one eighty-two, Lindbergh tower, ah, traffic twelve o'clock one mile a Cessna. |
| 09.00:41 | First officer | Flaps five. |
| 09.00:44 | Captain (to Lindbergh tower) | Okay, we had it there a minute ago. |
| 09.00:47 | Lindbergh tower | One eighty-two, roger. |
| 09.00:50 | Captain (to Lindbergh tower) | I think he's pass(sed) off to our right. |
| 09.00:51 | Lindbergh tower | Yeah. |
The PSA pilots reported that they saw the Cessna after being notified of its position by ATC, although cockpit voice recordings revealed that shortly thereafter the PSA pilots no longer had the Cessna in sight and they were speculating about its position. Lindbergh tower heard the 09.00:50 transmission as "He's passing off to our right" and assumed the PSA jet had the Cessna in sight.
After getting permission to land, and about 40 seconds before colliding with the Cessna, the conversation among the four occupants of the cockpit (captain, first officer, flight engineer and an off-duty PSA captain who was riding in the cockpit's jump seat) was as follows, showing the confusion:
| # = Nonpertinent word * = Unintelligible word = Questionable text () = Commentary | ||
| Time | Source | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 09.01:07 | Lindbergh tower | PSA one eighty-two, cleared to land. |
| 09.01:08 | Captain | One eighty-two's cleared to land. |
| 09:01:11 | First officer | Are we clear of that Cessna? |
| 09:01:13 | Flight Engineer | Supposed to be |
| 09:01:14 | Captain | I guess |
| 09:01:15 | First officer | (Fifteen) |
| Between 09:01:15 and 20 | Unknown | ((Sound of laughter)) |
| 09:01:20 | Off-duty captain | I hope |
| 09:01:21 | Captain | Oh yeah, before we turned downwind, I saw him at about one o'clock, probably behind us now |
Actually, the Cessna was directly in front of and below the Boeing, and the PSA jet was descending and rapidly closing in on the small plane, which had taken a right turn to the east, deviating from the assigned course. According to the report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
(NTSB), the Cessna may have been a difficult visual target for the jet's pilots, as it was below them and blended in with the multicolored hues of the residential area beneath, and the apparent motion of the Cessna as viewed from the Boeing was minimized as both planes were on approximately the same course. The report said that another possible reason that the PSA aircrew had difficulty observing the Cessna was that its fuselage was made visually smaller due to foreshortening. However, the same report in another section also stated that "the white surface of the Cessna's wing could have presented a relatively bright target in the sunlight."
A visibility study cited in the NTSB report concluded that the Cessna should have been almost centered in the windshield of the Boeing from 170 to 90 seconds before the collision, and thereafter it was likely positioned on the lower portion of the windshield just above the windshield wipers. The study also said that the Cessna pilot would have had about a 10-second view of the Boeing from the left-door window about 90 seconds before the collision, but visibility of the overtaking jet was blocked by the Cessna's ceiling structure for the remainder of the time.
Flight 182's crew never explicitly alerted the tower that they had lost sight of the Cessna. If they had made this clear to controllers, the crash might not have happened. Also, if the Cessna had maintained the heading of 70 degrees assigned to it by ATC instead of turning to 90 degrees, the NTSB estimates the planes would have missed each other by about (305 meters) instead of colliding. Ultimately, the NTSB maintained that regardless of that change in course, it was the responsibility of the crew in the overtaking jet to comply with the regulatory requirement to pass "well clear" of the Cessna.
Approach Control on the ground picked up an automated conflict alert 19 seconds before the collision but did not relay this information to the aircraft because, according to the approach coordinator, such alerts were commonplace even when there was no actual conflict. The NTSB stated: "Based on all information available to him, he decided that the crew of Flight 182 were complying with their visual separation clearance; that they were accomplishing an overtake maneuver within the separation parameters of the conflict alert computer; and that, therefore, no conflict existed."
This was the conversation in the PSA cockpit starting 16 seconds prior to collision with the Cessna:
| # = Nonpertinent word * = Unintelligible word = Questionable text () = Commentary | ||
| Time | Source | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 09:01:31 | First Officer | Gear down |
| 09:01:34 | ((Clicks and sound similar to gear extension)) | |
| 09:01:38 | First officer | There's one underneath |
| 09:01:39 | Unknown | * |
| 09:01:39 | First officer | I was looking at that inbound there |
| 09:01:42 | ((Sound of thump similar to nose gear door closing)) | |
| 09:01:45 | Captain | Whoop! |
| 09:01:46 | First officer | Aaargh! |
| 09:01:47 | ((Sound of impact)) | |
| 09:01:47 | Off-duty Captain | Oh # # |
Around this point, PSA Flight 182 had overtaken the Cessna which was directly below it, both approximately in a 090 (due east) heading, and the two aircraft collided. The collision occurred at approximately 2600 feet (792.5 m) and broke both the Cessna and the 727's right wing and empennage
Empennage
The empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow...
to pieces. According to several witnesses on the ground there was first a loud metallic "crunching" sound, then an explosion and fire that compelled them to look up. The wreckage of the Cessna plummeted to the ground, its vertical stabilizer torn from its fuselage and bent leftward, its debris hitting around 3500 feet (1,066.8 m) northwest of where the 727 went down. PSA 182's right wing was heavily damaged, rendering the plane uncontrollable and sending it careening into a sharp right bank (clearly seen in the Hans Wendt photos), and the fuel tank inside it ruptured and started a fire, when this final conversation took place inside the cockpit:
| # = Nonpertinent word * = Unintelligible word = Questionable text () = Commentary | ||
| Time | Source | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 09:01:48 | Unknown | # |
| 09:01:49 | Captain | Easy baby, easy baby |
| 09:01:50 | Unknown | Yeah |
| 09:01:51 | ((Sound of electrical system reactivation tone on voice recorder, system off less than one second)) |
|
| 09:01:51 | Captain | What have we got here? |
| 09:01:52 | First officer | It's bad |
| 09:01:52 | Captain | Huh? |
| 09:01:53 | First officer | We're hit man, we are hit |
| 09:01:55 | Captain | Tower, we're going down, this is PSA |
| 09:01:57 | Lindbergh tower | OK, we'll call the equipment for you |
| 09:01:58 | Unknown | Whoo! |
| 09:01:58 | ((Sound of stall warning)) | |
| 09:01:59 | Captain | This is it, baby |
| 09:01:59 | Unknown | Bob |
| 09:02:00 | First Officer | # # # |
| 09:02:01 | Unknown | # # |
| 09:02:03 | Captain (on intercom, to passengers) | Brace yourself |
| 09:02:04 | Unknown | Hey, baby * |
| 09:02:04 | Unknown | Ma, I love yah |
| 09:02:04.5 | ((Electrical power to recorder stops)) | |
Flight 182 struck the ground 4830 meters (three miles) northeast of Lindbergh Field, in a residential section of San Diego known as North Park
North Park, San Diego, California
North Park is a neighborhood in San Diego, California, USA. It is situated to the northeast of Balboa Park, bounded on the north by the canyons overlooking Mission Valley, on the south by Switzer Canyon and the South Park neighborhood, on the east by Interstate 805 and City Heights, and on the...
. It impacted in a high-speed, nose-down attitude while banked 50° to the right. Seismographic readings indicated that the impact occurred at 09:02:07, about 2.5 seconds after the cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...
lost power. The jet impacted just west of the I-805 freeway, approximately nine meters (30 feet) north of the intersection of Dwight and Nile streets, with the bulk of the debris field spreading in a northeast to southwesterly direction towards Boundary Street. The coordinates for the Boeing crash site are 32°44′37"N 117°07′14"W. The largest piece of the Cessna impacted about six blocks away near 32nd St. and Polk Ave. The explosion and fire created a mushroom cloud that could be seen for miles, and first responders on the scene reported that there was nothing left but utter destruction. In total, 144 people lost their lives in the disaster, including Flight 182's seven crew members, 30 additional PSA employees deadheading
Deadheading (aviation)
In aviation, deadheading is a term used when members of an airline's flight staff are carried free of charge but not working. This most often happens when airline crew are located in the wrong place and need to travel to take up their duties...
to PSA's San Diego base, the two Cessna occupants, and seven residents (five women, two male children) on the ground. An additional nine people on the ground were injured, and 22 homes across a four-block area were destroyed or damaged. At the time it was the U.S.'s deadliest commercial air disaster, and it remains the worst in California's history.
Investigation
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
(ATC) procedures. Flight 182's crew lost sight of the Cessna in contravention of the ATC's instructions to "keep visual separation from that traffic", and did not alert ATC that they had lost sight of it. Errors on the part of ATC were also named as contributing factors, including the use of visual separation procedures when radar clearances were available. Additionally the Cessna pilots, for reasons unknown, did not maintain their assigned east-northeasterly heading
Air navigation
The basic principles of air navigation are identical to general navigation, which includes the process of planning, recording, and controlling the movement of a craft from one place to another....
of 070 degrees after completing a practice instrument approach
Instrument approach
For aircraft operating under instrument flight rules , an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft under instrument flight conditions from the beginning of the initial approach to a landing, or to a point...
, nor did they notify ATC of their course change. Concerning this the NTSB report states, "According to the testimony of the controllers and the assistant chief flight instructor of the Gibbs Flite Center (owner of the Cessna), the 0859:56 transmission from approach control to the Cessna only imposed an altitude limitation on the pilot, he was not required to maintain the 070° heading. However, the assistant chief flight instructor testified that he would expect the [Cessna] pilot to fly the assigned heading or inform the controller that he was not able to do so."
A dissenting opinion in the NTSB crash report by member Francis H. McAdams
Francis H. McAdams
Francis H. McAdams, Jr. was a longtime member of the United States National Transportation Safety Board. He joined the board on July 31, 1967, having been nominated a few months earlier by President Lyndon Johnson, and was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 20, 1978.McAdams was a naval...
strongly questioned why the unauthorized change in course by the Cessna was not specifically cited as a "contributing factor" in the final report; instead, it was listed as simply a "finding", which carries less weight. McAdams also "sharply disagreed" with the majority of the panel on other issues, giving more weight to inadequate ATC procedures as another "probable cause" to the accident, rather than merely treating them as a contributing factor. McAdams also added the "possible misidentification of the Cessna by the PSA aircrew due to the presence of a third unknown aircraft in the area" as a contributing factor. The majority panel members did not cite this as a credible possibility. In an August 1982 amendment to the probable cause finding, the NTSB adopted McAdams’ viewpoints regarding both ATC and pilot failings.
Aftermath
In the aftermath of the devastation on the ground, a controversy renewed in San Diego over the placement of such a busy airport in a heavily populated area. Despite proposals to relocate it, San Diego International AirportSan Diego International Airport
San Diego International Airport , sometimes referred to as Lindbergh Field, is a public airport located northwest of the central business district of San Diego, California and from the Mexico – United States border at Tijuana, Mexico...
, the busiest single-runway commercial airport in the U.S., remains in use.
Staff photographer Hans Wendt of the San Diego County Public Relations Office was attending an outdoor press event with a still camera, and was able to take the two photographs of the falling Boeing after the collision with the Cessna. Cameraman Steve Howell from local TV channel 39 was attending the same event as Wendt, and captured the Cessna on film as it fell to earth. For its coverage of the disaster, The San Diego Evening Tribune, a predecessor to The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
-Predecessors:The predecessor newspapers of the Union-Tribune were:* San Diego Sun, founded 1861 and merged with the Evening Tribune in 1939.* San Diego Union, founded October 10, 1868.* Evening Tribune, founded December 2, 1895.-Ownership:...
, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in 1979 for "Local, General, or Spot News Reporting.
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
crash. Also killed in the crash were PSA passengers Charles Dunsmoor Bren, the 34-year-old son of actress Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor was an Academy Award-winning American actress. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Film Noir" because of her many appearances in "bad girl” roles in film noir and other black-and-white thrillers...
Bren, and Richard "Ric" Horne, the 51-year-old brother of American mezzo-soprano opera singer Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne
Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring a large sound, beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages....
. Another victim was Valerie Woods Kantor, the first wife of future United States Secretary of Commerce
United States Secretary of Commerce
The United States Secretary of Commerce is the head of the United States Department of Commerce concerned with business and industry; the Department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce"...
Mickey Kantor
Mickey Kantor
Michael "Mickey" Kantor is an American politician and lawyer. After serving as the Clinton-Gore campaign chair in 1992, Kantor was appointed United States Trade Representative, holding that office from 1993 to 1997. He was, in 1996 and 1997, United States Secretary of Commerce.-Life and...
.
A memorial plaque honoring those who died on both planes and on the ground is located in the San Diego Aerospace Museum
San Diego Aerospace Museum
San Diego Air & Space Museum is an aviation and space exploration museum in San Diego, California, USA...
, near the Theodore Gildred Flight Rotunda in San Diego's Balboa Park. On the 20th anniversary of the crash, a tree was planted next to the North Park branch library, and a memorial plaque was dedicated to those who lost their lives. The library is not in the immediate vicinity of the actual crash site, which is completely rebuilt and bears no visible evidence of the crash.
As a result of the crash, the NTSB recommended the immediate implementation of a Terminal Radar Service Area
Terminal Radar Service Area
In United States aviation, a terminal radar service area is a delimited airspace in which radar and air traffic control services are made available to pilots flying under instrument flight rules or visual flight rules for the purposes of maintaining aircraft separation.TRSAs are most often...
around Lindbergh Field to provide for the separation of aircraft, as well as an immediate review of control procedures for all busy terminal areas. However, this initial rule did not include small general aviation aircraft. Therefore, on May 15, 1980, the Federal Aviation Administration
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
(FAA), implemented what is called Class B airspace
Airspace class (United States)
The United States airspace system's classification scheme is to provide maximum pilot flexibility with acceptable levels of risk appropriate to the type of operation and traffic density within that class of airspace - in particular to provide separation and active control in areas of dense or...
to provide for the separation of all aircraft operating in the area. Additionally, all aircraft, regardless of size, are required to operate under "positive radar control," a rule that allows only radar control from the ground for all aircraft operating in the airport's airspace.
San Diego's Approach Control was expanded in 1994 to service a wider area. The facility, named SoCal TRACON, (Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control), is one of the nation's busiest approach facilities and covers the area from north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border, and from the Laguna Mountains
Laguna Mountains
The Laguna Mountains are a section of the Peninsular Ranges in eastern San Diego County, California. The mountains run in a northwest/southeast alignment for approximately ....
east of San Diego to the Channel Islands
Channel Islands of California
The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America...
off the coast of southern California.
At the time of the crash, Lindbergh Field was the only airport in San Diego County with an Instrument Landing System. As a direct result of the accident the FAA quickly installed the system at Montgomery and Gillespie fields, and at McClellan-Palomar Airport
McClellan-Palomar Airport
McClellan-Palomar Airport , known to locals as Palomar Airport, is a public airport located three miles southeast of the central business district of Carlsbad, a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is owned by the County of San Diego and serves the northern part of the county...
.
In recent years more efficient technology has been added at airports across the nation in the area of conflict alert. "Collision Alert," in operation at southern California's TRACON, provides the air traffic controller with visual and audible warnings if aircraft are within close proximity to each other, or if they are in a projected too-close proximity. A feature known as "Traffic Collision Alert and Avoidance System
Traffic Collision Avoidance System
A traffic collision avoidance system or traffic alert and collision avoidance system is an aircraft collision avoidance system designed to reduce the incidence of mid-air collisions between aircraft...
" (TCAS) is installed in all commercial passenger aircraft and in most commercial cargo planes. It not only gives the pilots visual and audible warnings in the cockpit when two aircraft are approaching each other, but even goes so far as to provide the pilots with a plan of action by directing them to climb or descend to avoid the other aircraft.
Because the PSA 182/Cessna collision was the result of pilot error, it is used as a teaching aid in modern flight training. Some flight schools use the crash in "human factors" classes, others refer to it while teaching airspace or visual separation rules.
After the tragedy of flight 182, Pacific Southwest Airlines went on to operate as one of the western U.S.'s most popular and successful commercial airlines throughout the rest of the 1970s and most of the 80s. The airline, which operated its first flight on May 6, 1949, became a division of USAir on May 29, 1987; the last PSA flight left San Diego as flight 1486 bound for Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 8, 1988. Sadly, although operating under parent company USAir, another PSA flight would be involved in a tragic event on December 7, 1987, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771.
In a case of life imitating art, the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
telemovie Emergency!: Survival on Charter #220 (effectively a two-hour Emergency!
Emergency!
Emergency! is an American television series that combines the medical drama and action-adventure genres. It was produced by Mark VII Limited and distributed by Universal Studios...
episode filmed after the show was no longer a weekly series) had aired in March 1978, six months before the accident involving PSA Flight 182. It detailed the accidental daytime mid-air collision of a Douglas DC-9
Aeroméxico Flight 498
Aeroméxico Flight 498, registration , was a Douglas DC-9-32 on route from Mexico City, Mexico to Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California, United States on August 31, 1986. N4891F was a privately-operated Piper PA-28-181 Archer owned by the Kramer family en route from Torrance to...
airliner and a much smaller two-person aircraft and the resulting crash and carnage in a residential area of Los Angeles County.
On September 25, 2008, over 100 relatives and friends of the victims of PSA 182 gathered at Dwight and Nile streets in North Park for a 30th anniversary memorial of that fateful day.
News media and/or police on the scene captured the carnage, damage, and raging structural fires on film at the immediate impact zone and aircraft debris field. The dramatic, graphic footage captured the tragedy's aftermath minute by minute. The news footage, some of which was later used in the 1979 cult film Faces of Death
Faces of Death
Faces of Death is a 1978 mondo film which guides viewers through explicit scenes depicting a variety of ways to die and violent acts....
, included images of the dead and various unidentifiable human remains that resulted from the forceful impact and subsequent fires.
Nearby St. Augustine High School (San Diego, California) a triage and command and control center for those authorities who responded to the emergency and allowed the use of its gymnasium as a makeshift morgue for identifying human remains and forensic investigation.
Large freezer units were used to preserve the biological remains since San Diego was recording unusually high 100-degree temperatures at the time.
See also
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
- List of notable mid-air and runway collisionsMid-air collisionA mid-air collision is an aviation accident in which two or more aircraft come into contact during flight. Owing to the relatively high velocities involved and any subsequent impact on the ground or sea, very severe damage or the total destruction of at least one of the aircraft involved usually...
- Allegheny Airlines Flight 853Allegheny Airlines Flight 853Allegheny Airlines Flight 853, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30, collided in mid-air with a Piper PA-28 at approximately 3,550 feet on September 9, 1969, near Fairland, Indiana. The DC-9 carried 78 passengers and 4 crew members. The Piper was leased to a student pilot making a solo cross-country flight...
- A similar crash that occurred in Fairland, IndianaFairland, IndianaFairland is a town in Shelby County, Indiana, United States. The population was 315 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Fairland is located at ....
in 1969. - Aeroméxico Flight 498Aeroméxico Flight 498Aeroméxico Flight 498, registration , was a Douglas DC-9-32 on route from Mexico City, Mexico to Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California, United States on August 31, 1986. N4891F was a privately-operated Piper PA-28-181 Archer owned by the Kramer family en route from Torrance to...
, a 1986 collision over a heavily-populated southern California neighborhood, similar to PSA Flight 182, which finally spurred regulatory bodies into action and led to mandatory collision avoidance equipmentTraffic Collision Avoidance SystemA traffic collision avoidance system or traffic alert and collision avoidance system is an aircraft collision avoidance system designed to reduce the incidence of mid-air collisions between aircraft...
. - 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision This crash led to the Indian Government making all aircraft in Indian Aerospace to be equipped with TCAS mandatory.
External links
- Gallery of crash pictures
- The full report of the NTSB investigation - PDF file, 1.8 MB
- Article about Flight 182 on PSA History Page
- San Diego magazine 20th anniversary article about the PSA Disaster - Archived copy from www.archive.org
- "Death Over San Diego", Time Magazine, October 9, 1978
- TV Channel 10 (in San Diego) 25th Anniversary article with eyewitness accounts
- PSA Crash Page with map
- Pre-crash photos of 727 N533PS
- Audio of communications between ATC and PSA Flight 182 - WAVWAVWaveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
file, 535 KB - Tribute Video to those who lost their lives, and PSA 182
- Air Tragedy Remembered Union Tribune Article about 30th anniversary tribute
- PSA Crash in 1978 A blog about the crash, with many personal accounts of the crash scene immediately after impact
- "Return to Dwight and Nile: The Crash of PSA 182" A 2009 documentary with eyewitness interviews
- Macarthur JobMacarthur JobMacarthur Job is an Australian aviation writer and air safety consultant. He has published nine books on aviation safety...
Air Disaster: Volume 2 (Aerospace Publications, 6 August 1996: ISBN 1875671196)